Hi all, not sure if this is the best place to post about this (mods, please move if there is a more appropriate location), but I've got a small problem when it comes to selecting an IDE for game development that I'd like to do (ultimately for the Xbox).

I've tried installing VC++ 2010 express only to find out that it crashes every time I compile a little hello world program in C++ (I can post the error message when I get back home). The stripped down crapiness of the software is a turn-off as it is, but having it fall over and die for such a simple task, makes me lose faith in this suite completely.

Now, I've been looking in NetBeans 7.3 (just installed!). Granted, it's kind of bloated (in terms of how much RAM it eats up), but it has some nice things that I like, so after weighing the pros and cons, I'm more than willing to give this IDE a serious try (all of the basic functionality seems to work).

I'm currently reading Game Coding Complete 3rd Edition. And as I'm going through this whole thing, I'm having this nagging thoughts that as good as NetBeans might be, I'll have serious issues down the road when it comes to working with DirectX and getting my software to run on an Xbox.

And before you ask, buying Visual Studio 2012 Pro is simply not possible at this moment.

These are my options:

1 - Continue with NetBeans and deal with issues that arise due to incompatibility.

2 - Try to re-install Visual C++ 2010 Express the nth time, hoping that this time it'll work.

3 - Write a puppy-eyed letter to MS begging for a developer suite that I can use to do something that I'm interested in.

Errr honestly if your hello world program crashes either your install is terribly terribly broken or you're just downright doing something wrong. Don't dismiss vs before you even got a chance to actually use it, it's by far the most powerful IDE out there particularly with debugging and Xbox development.

Postmortem: one must die- Political narrative-adventure game playing an Agent of Death who must take ONE life that could change the fate of a conflict-torn Nation!

Visual Studio Express Editions are very stable IDE's. the fact that it is crashing on such a simple applications has me wanting to see what exactly you're doing or see how you install it. VS is prolly the most widely used IDE on Windows.

BTW, their is also Code::Blocks.

Also I hope I'm not coming across as rude but not to put a damper in your dreams, chances of you creating a Xbox game in C++ is very slim right now unless you have thousands of dollars and can convince MS to license you a dev kit. Their is C# and XNA if you do want X box development using The Indie Game Channel on the Xbox. You would then use Visual C#.

If VS2010 is crashing, something else on your computer is causing it. There's no way for us to guess what your computer has on it that would cause it, though. Could be bad RAM, malware, corrupt registry, old copy of a 2010 beta/trial, etc.

Also you should give VS2012 Express for Windows Desktop a try as well. It includes C++, C# and VB.

Project structure is described in CMakeLists files, including shared/static libraries, and CMake generates whole project for IDE of choice. On windows, it can generate project for any Visual Studio version, as well as Eclipse, CodeBlocks and plain NMake makefiles. Good advantage of this approach is that other developers can work with IDE of their choice, and project files do not pollute source tree.

Disadvantage is that you have to regenerate your project files when you add/remove files and you need to learn CMake

A programming beginner doesn't really need tool mobility, they need to pick one reasonable option and stick with it.

I generally recommend my students to start with just a text editor (anything that has basic syntax coloring and indenting) and a compiler, then add more tools (such as CMake) one by one as their programs grow and they able to understand why they need that new tool. But in this case, ysg specifically wants to do stuff with DirectX and therefore any compiler he/she uses would have to support DX libraries. Clearly the most friction-less way is to use VS2012 Express.

A programming beginner doesn't really need tool mobility, they need to pick one reasonable option and stick with it.

I generally recommend my students to start with just a text editor (anything that has basic syntax coloring and indenting) and a compiler, then add more tools (such as CMake) one by one as their programs grow and they able to understand why they need that new tool. But in this case, ysg specifically wants to do stuff with DirectX and therefore any compiler he/she uses would have to support DX libraries. Clearly the most friction-less way is to use VS2012 Express.

Well, I'm not a beginner to software development, but I am when it comes to creating code on a Windows machine .

Visual Studio Express Editions are very stable IDE's. the fact that it is crashing on such a simple applications has me wanting to see what exactly you're doing or see how you install it. VS is prolly the most widely used IDE on Windows.

BTW, their is also Code::Blocks.

Also I hope I'm not coming across as rude but not to put a damper in your dreams, chances of you creating a Xbox game in C++ is very slim right now unless you have thousands of dollars and can convince MS to license you a dev kit. Their is C# and XNA if you do want X box development using The Indie Game Channel on the Xbox. You would then use Visual C#.

Just curious, where would I find a free version of VC++ express that I can keep

running for over 30 days? I have found the ones on microsoft.com that run out

Visual Studio Express Editions are very stable IDE's. the fact that it is crashing on such a simple applications has me wanting to see what exactly you're doing or see how you install it. VS is prolly the most widely used IDE on Windows.

BTW, their is also Code::Blocks.

Also I hope I'm not coming across as rude but not to put a damper in your dreams, chances of you creating a Xbox game in C++ is very slim right now unless you have thousands of dollars and can convince MS to license you a dev kit. Their is C# and XNA if you do want X box development using The Indie Game Channel on the Xbox. You would then use Visual C#.

Just curious, where would I find a free version of VC++ express that I can keep

running for over 30 days? I have found the ones on microsoft.com that run out

after one month.

All VS Expresses are free forever. What happens is that you have register after 30 days. But it's still free. All registering involves is just getting a register key inputting it in VS Express and continue to do whatever it was you were doing. That's it.

Beginner in Game Development? Read here.Super Mario Bros clone tutorial written in XNA 4.0 [MonoGame, ANX, and MonoXNA] by Scott Haley
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All VS Expresses are free forever. What happens is that you have register after 30 days.

... so what you really mean then is that it is free for an unspecified amount of time until Microsoft stops distributing these keys ;)If you download the express edition of choice as an .iso, as I recall, this doesn't need to be activated (DRM free).